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- They are withdrawing due to turnover: VkusVill has closed almost 300 stores in a year
They are withdrawing due to turnover: VkusVill has closed almost 300 stores in a year
VkusVill closed 286 stores in 2025, Izvestia learned. As a result, the network has shrunk by almost 13%, to 1,973 locations. This is the first major grocery retailer to close its stores. Some of them stopped working due to optimization, a company representative confirmed. The decline in consumer activity makes many retail outlets unprofitable, experts say. How traditional retail is changing is in the Izvestia article.
Why Vkusville is closing stores
By the end of 2025, the VkusVill retail chain closed 286 stores — their number decreased by 12.7% over the year, to 1,973 outlets, the Infoline analytical company calculated for Izvestia. At the same time, the number of compact retail facilities is up to 100 square meters. m decreased by 24%, to 635 points.
Some stores have stopped operating due to optimization related to "location and assortment," a VkusVille representative confirmed. According to him, more than 70% of the closed outlets were in the format of mini-stores. Their reduction was expected and is associated with "accelerated delivery," the source explained.
VkusVill is a retail food chain and its own brand of products that are positioned as created "for healthy eating." It was founded in 2009 by entrepreneur Andrey Krivenko as a network called "Izbenka". The first store opened in Moscow.
In 2025, the company, according to its own data, had more than 2,000 stores and more than 240 darkstores (warehouses designed for quick assembly and delivery of online orders) in 157 Russian cities. By the end of 2025, VkusVill JSC's revenue under RAS amounted to 358.6 billion rubles (+10% by 2024), net profit — 6.6 billion rubles (+8%).
The closure of retail outlets is due to an increase in the share of online sales from the retailer, said the expert of the Pro retail space optimization service.Stores" by Irina Bolotova. The accumulated customer base allows the company to focus on the development of the delivery service. Moreover, with the development of omnichannel consumption, large retail companies do not need to have many physical stores, she points out.
VkusVill is one of the leaders in online retail, said Mikhail Lachugin, an independent consultant to retail chain suppliers and founder of the Telegram channel Product Media. In 2025, according to the retailer itself, 53% of all revenue came from online delivery. The shopping model is changing, in which there is no need to maintain a large number of stores, added Lachugin.
In addition, VkusVill has closed stores mainly in those regions where the retail chain is perceived by local consumers as "almost a premium segment" — the price tag for food in it often turns out to be higher than that of other retailers, Irina Bolotova explained.
Large-scale optimization of its own network has made it possible to improve VkusVille's comparable sales figures and maintain business profitability, said Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics. According to him, many of the company's stores opened during the period of active segment growth. At the same time, the change in market conditions led to the fact that some of them turned out to be ineffective, the expert noted.
Such dynamics of closures is not an isolated case, but a consequence of a general trend, says Polina Afanasyeva, Senior Director, Head of the CMWP Research and Analytics Department. Last year, she said, a number of grocery retailers revised their expansion plans in the face of a "tough economic background," expensive loans, and increased competition with marketplaces.
The increase in the number of inefficient stationary stores was also influenced by the strengthening of the savings consumption model and the slowdown in retail sales, Afanasyeva added. By the end of 2025, this indicator in comparable prices increased by 2.6% against 7.2% a year earlier, according to Rosstat data. And in 2026, retail turnover will grow by only 1.1%, the Ministry of Economic Development predicts.
Vkusville is the first major grocery retailer to close its outlets. In the market of non-food products, the trend towards reducing stores has already been realized, Mikhail Burmistrov noted.
Last year, the O'STIN chain closed 62 stores and cut 15% of its staff, Izvestia wrote. Gloria Jeans has closed at least 100 stores in less than two years, Shopper's reported. In 2026, it intends to shut down another 150 stores, RBC claimed. The retailer Concept Group (brands of women's clothing Concept Club, children's clothing Acoola and underwear Infinity Lingerie), owned by AFK Sistema, reduced the number of stores by almost half, closing 133 outlets, Kommersant indicated.
In the food segment, the massive trend towards optimization is "still far away," Mikhail Burmistrov believes. At the same time, it is observed in non-chain retail today "quite clearly," he noted. Even large retailers are now closing some unprofitable stores in response to increased competition, the expert said.
Against this background, the area growth of the top 200 FMCG retailers (excluding self-service discount stores) in 2025 amounted to 1.6 million square meters. m is the minimum since 2011, according to Infoline materials. A year earlier, this figure was 2.2 million square meters. m. The main growth is accounted for by the largest players — X5, Magnit, Red & White and Lenta. Retailers have sharply slowed down their expansion amid pressure on margins and focused on efficiency, Infoline analysts say.
What awaits retail in 2026
VkusVille does not expect further store reductions in 2026, a company representative said. However, the experts interviewed by Izvestia are confident that this trend will continue. The trend will increase because the dynamics of consumer demand slowed down sharply at the beginning of the year, Mikhail Burmistrov believes.
In January, purchases by citizens decreased by 1.9% against an increase of 0.2–0.5% in the II–IV quarters of 2025, according to data from the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting (CMAKP). Now buyers have begun to behave "very rationally and cautiously," Irina Bolotova said. Against the background of rising prices, people tend to save on food, buy ready-made food less often and cook at home more often. However, according to her, not all market participants are ready to optimize their own business, and many of them may not survive this year.
Retailers will take a more "careful and balanced" approach to opening new stores against the background of a general decrease in traffic, Mikhail Burmistrov believes. According to him, in terms of increasing efficiency, companies are converting some stores into darkstores, as well as transferring them to other networks for management. For example, Magnit has transferred some of its facilities in the Moscow region to Dixie management.
Companies are striving to reduce costs, including by optimizing staff, Irina Bolotova points out. For example, they are increasing the number of self-service cash registers and actively introducing robotics in retail outlets. This is a one-time investment that allows you to save on the employee compensation fund. So, VkusVill launched convenience stores without sellers in St. Petersburg in 2025, its representative said. At the same time, the number of staff decreased by 6% year-on-year, to 24,051 people, according to the explanatory note to the retailer's report.
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